Woven elastic fabric or webbing



Aug. 27, 1957 H. F. SHERMAN 2,804,099

WOVEN ELASTIC FABRIC 0R WEBBING Filed Aug. 19, 1953 m 3% e- 7a n 0 0 5y '1 Harold F. Sherman IN V EN TOR.

ATTORNEY United States Patent This invention relates to elastic fabrics, primarily elastic webb ng, and, in particular, to a woven elastic fabric or webbing having a soft velvety surface on one or both faces of the woven material where it contacts the skin or body.

'Up to the present time, as far as I am aware, it has been and is the practice in the manufacture of elastic waistbands and insertions for girdles, leg elasti used in panty girdles, elastic bands or bras, sanitary belts, garter belts, etc., to use on such articles comparatively roughhard finish Woven or braided elastic webbing or edging in places coming in contact with the body thus causing considerable chafing or irritation of the skin and resultant discomfort to the wearer.

It is the general object of my invention to provide a woven elastic fabric or webbing having an extremely soft velvety surface which when used on such articles as above mentioned will alford protection against chafing or irritation of the skin of the wearer and thus eliminate the foregoing discomfort characteristic of the present rough hardfinish woven elastic fabrics or webbing.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a woven elastic fabric or Webbing having one or both faces made with a soft velvety surface formed by all-textile stretchable permanently crimped yarns extending in the direction in which the fabric is to stretch and floated outwardly of and interwoven with an elastic base fabric or webbing woven with rubber threads as warp or filling and nonelastic yarns used in the opposite direction.

The present invention contemplates an improved woven elastic fabric or webbing having a woven elastic base fabric formed of rubber and rayon, cotton or nylon threads either as warp or as filling, and with threads of rayon, cotton or nylon used in the opposite direction, in which such elastic base fabric or webbing is further provided with a soft velvety surface on one or both faces obtained by floating groups of stretchable permanently crimped alltextile threads outwardly of the above-described base weave at one or both faces thereof and extending in the direction in which the fabric or webbing is to stretch. I preferably employ for such permanently crimped salltextile threads the highly stretchable elastic threads of superpolyamide yarns, specifically nylon yarns, having permanently crimped properties that have been made elastic in accordance with the so-called Helanca process, as fully disclosed and claimed in the L. A. Billion Patent No. 2,564,245, dated August 14, 1951. After the woven elastic fabric or webbing contemplated by the present invention comes off the loom it is then wetted in warm or hot water and calendered without tension at a temperature above 212 F. The contracted permanently crimped or bulked, nylon yarns produce a soft velvety pile surface at one or both faces of the contracted fabric in which they are interwoven and this velvety surface is maintained for a considerable extent as such nylon yarns stretch along with the rubber threads.

The above and other features of the present invention will be further understood from the following description 2,804,099 Patented Aug. 27, 1957 ice portion of a piece of fabric or Webbing constructed in accordance with the present invention, and showing the arrangement of certain of the yarns when woven as shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic fragmentary longitudinal sectional view of an elastic plain weave base fabric or webbing showing the interwoven arrangement of the elastic and inelastic yarns thereof and with floated crimped nylon yarns disposed at both faces of the base fabric or webbing;

Fig. 3 is a weaving diagram for producing the fabric or webbing shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic fragmentary longitudinal sectional View of a 2/2 twill weave appearance on both front and back faces of an elastic base fabric or webbing showing the weaving arrangement of the elastic and inelastic yarns thereof and with the permanently crimped nylon yarns being disposed at and floating on one face of the base fabric or webbing; and

Fig. 5 is a weaving diagram for producing the fabric or webbing shown in Fig. 4.

In one embodiment of the invention shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the elastic base weave may be a plain-weave elastic structure as illustrated in longitudinal section in Fig. 2, wherein an extremely soft velvety surface is provided on both front and back faces thereof. As shown in Fig. 2 this woven elastic fabric or webbing has elastic rubber warp threads 21, additional textile warp threads 22 of nylon, cotton or rayon, all interwoven by non-elastic filling threads 23. Interwoven with this base fabric or webbing structure and floated outwardly on both front r and back faces thereof are groups of permanently crimped elastic all-textile threads of which two of each group, viz., 24a, 24b and 25a, 2512 respectively are here shown, which groups extend in a warpwise direction of the base fabric or webbing and are capable of substantial stretch when the base fabric or webbing is stretched, and, when contracted, allow the crimped nylon face yarn to expand, fluff up and provide a soft velvety surface. These top and bottom groups of floating threads 24a, 24b and 25a, 25b preferably consist of stretchable permanently crimped nylon yarns as produced by the aforementioned Helanca process set forth in the Billion patent.

In the second embodiment of the invention illustrated in Fig. 4, the fabric or webbing thereshown is elastic in one direction, viZ., longitudinally, and comprises a woven elastic base structure formed by elastic rubber warp threads 31, additional warp threads 32a, 32b, 32c and 32d of filament rayon, nylon or cotton interwoven together with non-elastic filling threads 33 of filament rayon, nylon or cotton. The elastic rubber warp threads 31 are preferably, although not necessarily, of the covered rubber type commonly employed in elastic fabrics. The woven elastic base fabric or webbing is of a 2/2 twill weave appearance on both front and back faces. In order to impart a soft velvety surface to a front or a back face of the elastic base weave above-described, additional groups of permanently crimped synthetic yarns are floated outwardly on the surface of the base fabric or webbing as indicated at 34 and 35 and interwoven therewith. The floating yarns 34 and 35 all are disposed in generally parallel relation to the fabric and extend in a warpwise direction I thereof. In the preferred construction, these floating yarns 34 and 35 consist of stretchable permanently crimped nylon yarns which have been mechanically processed according to the method disclosed in the aforementioned Billion patent and known in the trade as Helanca yarn.

It will be understood that the weaves hereinshown are presented for purposes of illustration only, and that the invention is not limited to a particular weave so long as the described extremely soft velvety surface characteristics are obtained by use of stretchable permanently crimped all-textile yarns floating on one or both faces of the fabric or webbing and interwoven with the elastic base weave structure.

In weaving the fabric or Webbing herein contemplated it will be obvious that the floated permanently crimped nylon yarns can be exchanged from one face to the other of the base fabric to form a reversible raised patterned effect having a soft velvety surface at such locations on both faces of the fabric or webbing. The elastic rubber threads and the permanently crimped nylon yarns used in the fabric or webbing as herein contemplated either as warp or filling preferably are maintained under sufficient tension while they are being woven into the fabric or webbing to hold them in an extended or a straightened condition.

\Vith reference to the weaving diagrams of Figs. 3 and 5 respectively, the circle-marked squares there illustrated are intended to indicate by conventional shedding procedure' that the warp is in an up or raised position while the plain unmarked squares indicate that the warp is in lowered position.

While I have stated above that I prefer to employ as the floated yarns the stretchable permanently crimped nylon yarns that have been processed according to the method disclosed in the aforementioned Billion patent it is to be understood that I do not intend the invention to be restricted to use of such yarns only, as nylon yarns produced in permanently crimped form by other methods may be utilized instead with the same or similar results Without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

I have used herein the term elastic in the sense in which it is normally used in the textile industry, viz., to designate a strand or fabric which is markedly more stretchable than the usual textile materials and capable of returning to its original shape and position upon removal of the tension or stretching force. The terms nonelastic and inelastic are used to designate textile strands or threads which are normal as to elasticity, and this term is not intended to mean a material free from elasticity but only normally free from stretch, for example, as is a cotton thread as contrasted with a rubber thread.

What is claimed is:

1. A woven elastic fabric or webbing having a face thereof formed in a large part with a soft velvety surface,

said fabric or webbing comprising a woven elasti ground or base structure formed by rubber and non-elastic threads interwoven with non-elastic binding threads running in a transverse direction, and having additionally stretchable,

permanently crimped all-textile threads interwoven at intervals with and floated outwardly on said woven elastic ground or base structure at a face thereof and extending in the direction in which the fabric or webbing is to stretch, said permanently crimped float threads being characterized by being in an untwisted state and capable of substantial stretching when the base fabric or webbing is stretched and exhibiting, when the latter is contracted, expanded flufling properties which provide said soft velvety surface on one face of such fabric or webbing.

2. A woven elastic fabric or webbing as claimed in claim 1 in which all of said floating all-textile threads providing the soft velvety surface sought consist of the highly stretchable elastic permanently crimped threads of a superpolyamide yarn.

3. A woven elastic fabric or webbing as claimed in claim 1 in which all of said floating all-textile threads providing the soft velvety surface sought consist of permanently crimped nylon threads.

4. A woven elastic fabric or webbing having a face thereof formed in a large part with a soft velvety surface, said fabric or webbing comprising a woven elastic ground or base structure formed by rubber and non-elastic warp threads interwoven with inelastic filling threads, and having said face or back portion thereof formed in a large part by groups of stretchable permanently crimped alltextile threads interwoven with and floated outwardly on said woven elastic ground or base structure and extending in a warpwise direction of the completed fabric, said per- I manently crimped float threads being characterized by being in an untwisted state and capable of substantial stretching when the base fabric or webbing is stretched and exhibiting, when the latter is contracted, expanded fiuffing properties which provide said soft velvety surface on one face of such fabric or webbing.

5. A Woven elastic fabric or webbing having a face thereof formed in a large part with a soft velvety surface, said fabric or webbing comprising a woven elastic ground or base structure formed by rubber and non-elastic warp threads interwoven with inelastic filling threads, and having additionally, groups of permanently crimped nylon warp threads floated outwardly on a face of said woven elastic ground or base structure and interwoven therewith, said permanently crimped nylon float threads being in an untwisted state and capable of substantial stretching when the base fabric or webbing is stretched and exhibiting, when the latter is contracted, expanded flufiing properties which provide said soft velvety surface on one face of such fabric or webbing.

6. A woven elastic fabric or webbing having both front and back faces thereof formed with soft velvety surfaces, said fabric or webbing comprising a woven elastic ground or base structure formed by rubber and non-elastic warp threads interwoven with inelastic filling threads, and having additionally, groups of stretchable permanently crimped all-textile threads floated outwardly on both front and back faces of said woven elastic ground or base structure and being interwoven therewith and extending warpwise of the completed fabric or webbing, said permanently crimped float threads being characterized by being in an untwisted state and capable of substantial stretching when the base fabric or webbing is stretched and exhibiting, when the latter is contracted, expanded fluffing properties which provide said soft velvety surface on both front and back faces of such fabric or webbing.

7. A woven elastic fabric or webbing as claimed in claim 6 in which all of said floating all-textile threads providing the soft velvety surface sought consist of perrnanently crimped nylon threads.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 419,395 Woodward Jan. 14, 1890 445,065 Lapworth Jan. 20, 1891 2,092,287 Moore Sept. 7, 1937 2,177,586 Voegeli Oct. 24. 1939 2,401,828 Kahil June 11, 1946 2,463,620 Heberlein Mar. 8, 1949 2,564,245 Billion Aug. 14, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 2,359 Great Britain of 1879 

